The rail shipment of 12 containers, taking atomic waste treated in northwest France to a storage plant in Gorleben, northern Germany, crossed the border at 4:14 pm (1514 GMT), about three hours later than planned, a spokesman said.

Police used a gas blow torch to cut away two protestors who had attached themselves to the rails with chains and pipes. Eight anti-nuclear activists were detained and questioned.

Some 13,000 security personnel have been mobilised to protect the convoy.

Germany, which is in the process of phasing out atomic energy, has no nuclear waste treatment facilities of its own and sends its spent fuel rods to France to be reprocessed.

The shipments regularly spark protests by environmentalists, who claim they are dangerous and that the waste will contaminate the water table at Gorleben, where the shipment was expected to arrive late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

Earlier in the northeastern French city of Nancy, around 40 people took part in a peaceful protest against the shipment, many dressed in white with "Danger Nucleaire" adorned on them.

On Saturday, several thousand demonstrators -- 5,000 according to organisers, 3,000 police figures suggest -- took part in a protest in the town of Dannenberg near Gorleben. Other smaller protests were also held on Sunday.

The district of Lueneburg has banned a demonstration planned for Tuesday near Dannenberg, where the waste will be transferred from rail to trucks.

The Gorleben storage centre is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) away.

WAR.WIRE